There is a group of friends, 15 of them in all, who have known each other a very long time. In one year, three of them have died, leaving 12. They are too young, this group of friends, to have had three of their ranks taken. So one day in May, in a house on a ridge overlooking a valley of heather and wheat, they meet to discuss what to do. After seven hours of ideas and deliberation, they decide that there will be no more death. They agree that none of them will themselves die, and that they will as a group work together to find a cure for mortality. One of the group, Helen, draws up a petition and they all sign it. Another, Suze, begins, with twine and clay, to work on an anti-death device. Four more - Wilt, Bob, Antaea and Roy - build a lab in the basement, where they begin to experiment with gene therapy and thunder. At night they all sit on the floor and recount what they've accomplished, and their friends who are gone. They talk about how Morgan, 27, heart condition, thought he could sing, though he could not sing, and how perfect he would have been for that recent TV show wherein the worst would-be crooner wins $100,000. Ginger was 26 and was killed when a train derailed, the one that was carrying her home. All assembled compare stories of when they first found out that Ginger's sweet, ebullient facade belied a quick, cutting wit and x-ray eyes. One or two of them find comfort in knowing that, now these people - Morgan, Ginger, Richard - are gone, their lives can be summed up and dissected and turned into comprehensible narratives. And a few of them do this, silently, and smile at their concoctions. But no one tells themselves stories about Richard, because he took his life, flew from a bridge, and no one wants to think about it because it would mean, eventually - there were so many of them! Who looked away? - it was in part their fault. The next day they go back to work. Timothy and Tanya build a catapult that would send a person to safety if death was approaching. Chrissy and Giacomo discover a way to live, for ever, in mirrors made using smoke. And Mary - her mouth has a hundred curves - suggests that the remaining members procreate as much as possible and overwhelm death with sheer numbers. Death will retreat, she says. Death will move on. And because Mary is the smartest of the group, they all put aside what they're working on and do her plan first.